WALKING FOR RAMEN
by joostay
A sunny walk through my neighbourhood in Tokyo
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, eating, food, ikimasho, japan, japanese, photography, ramen, shimokitazawa, sun, tokyo, travel, walking
Tag: shimokitazawa
THIS IS TOKYO
by joostay
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Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, food, japan, japanese, justin egli, kichijoji, photography, se asia, shimokitazawa, tokyo, travel, urban, west tokyo
Kitazawa Hachiman Shrine Reitaisai 2016
by joostay
Last weekend was the annual Reitaisai (Grand Festival) in my suburb of Shimokitazawa. The festival was centred around Kitazawa Hachiman Shrine which was built more than 500 years ago to put the area under divine protection. Around 20 mikoshi (portable shrines) were scattered throughout the neighbourhood and then carried by various teams to the shrine itself. Like IKIMASHO! on Facebook
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: culture, design, festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, justin egli, matsuri, photography, shimokitazawa, tokyo, travel
Ramen: Nagi, Shimokitazawa
by joostay
Typhoon strength ramen as Tokyo takes a direct hit from one of three tropical storms Today was my first day back at work after the summer break – and it seemed like the weather didn’t want to play ball. Right now three tropical storms are spinning near the country, and in the last 24 hours Tokyo has taken a direct hit from one of them, Mindulle, which strengthened into a typhoon early this morning. It’s the first typhoon to make landfall near the metropolitan region in 11 years, with gusts […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: food, ikimasho, japan, japanese, justin egli, niboshi ramen, photography, ramen, shimokitazawa, tokyo, travel
Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2016, Tokyo, Japan.
by joostay
Dancing in the streets of my neighbourhood in Tokyo This weekend was the annual Awa Odori festival in my neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa in Tokyo. Awa Odori is part of the Bon festivities, which are held to welcome one’s ancestors back to this world for a few days. Participants march in a straight line in unison to music performed on the shamisen, flute, drums, and bells singing “odoru aho ni miru aho; onaji aho nara odoranya son son!” (It’s a fool who dances […]
Categories: Art Music & Culture, Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, festival, ikimasho, japan, japanese, justin egli, obon, photography, shimokitazawa, tokyo, travel
SHIMOKITA AT NIGHT
by joostay
下北沢東京 A walk around my neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa at night. Follow IKIMASHO! on Facebook
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, asian, design, ikimasho, japan, japanese, justin egli, light, neon, night, photography, shimokitazawa, street, tokyo, travel, urban
IKIMASHO! 2016
by joostay
It’s been three months now since I moved back to Tokyo after travelling for the guts of a year. I arrived in January after my company needed someone to replace a teacher who had quit after the second term. So for the last three months I’ve basically been finishing off someone else’s contract – which has had its good and bad points. The positives: I had actually taught at this school before, four years ago. It was the first kindergarten I ever […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, design, food, japan, japanese, justin egli, photography, sakura, shimokitazawa, spring, story, tokyo, travel
Laundry & Lunch: Suburban local life in Tokyo, Japan.
by joostay
The little old lady barely visible in the photo above owns a coin laundry just down the road from my house. She lives quietly on the left, while ageing washing machines and driers rattle noisily to the right. Every morning at 7.30 I pass her on my…
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: asia, blog, japan, justin egli, living in japan, setagaya, shimokitazawa, simple, tokyo, travel, urban
The Curator
by joostay
At midnight Tokyo can feel like a dream. A silent suburbia awaiting the onset of sleep. Vending machines hum and glow, pulsating, while cats peer down from above. Mass tangles of electrical cables silhouette against the moon. By 1am most of the shutters in my neighbourhood have closed. Yet one store is always open. It sells toys. Old toys. Spin tops and paddle balls, wind-up cars and forgotten plastic treasures. Inside, the Curator sits content: a pupa encased in a […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: dream, japan, shimokitazawa, sleep, tokyo
Empathy for the inanimate. Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, Japan.
by joostay
Solitude is pleasant. Loneliness is not. The forgotten stores of Shimokitazawa. A few years back I was in a supermarket and saw a damaged apple. It was bruised and off-colour. Lonely. Discarded. I felt sorry for it. I bought it because I knew no one else would. I was reminded of this apple today as I walked through Shimokitazawa’s suffocating Station Market. It isn’t really a market at all any more. It’s a dark alleyway that smells like a box […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: alleyways, asia, bar, culture, forgotten, japan, sadness, shimokitazawa, shops, south east asia, tokyo
Unforced Creativity #5
by joostay
UNFORCED CREATIVITY #4 UNFORCED CREATIVITY #3 UNFORCED CREATIVITY #2 UNFORCED CREATIVITY #1
Categories: Art: stuff I've drawn • Tags: art, asia, bizarre, culture, drawing, fashion, fetish, graffiti, harajuku, japan, punk rock, shimokitazawa, south east asia, sticker, street, surreal, tokyo, travel, weird
Never a dull moment…
by joostay
April is a time of change in Japan. It’s the month that marks the start of the new school year, with many people changing jobs and others leaving the country for good. It’s been a very busy period for me: new schools, new responsibilities and new friends. But in between teaching, writing and drawing I’ve also managed to pack in so much stuff over the last few weeks in Tokyo.
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo, Kindergarten Life • Tags: art, asia, backpacking, bar, Chim↑Pom, culture, exhibition, fashion, food, gaijin, harajuku, hello kitty, inaka, japan, kindergarten, louis vuitton, omotesando, saitama, shimokitazawa, south east asia, street, surreal, Taro Okamoto, teaching, tokyo, travel, urban, weird
Shimokitazawa: End of the Line
by joostay
On 23 March 2013, the level crossings at Shimokitazawa in Tokyo lifted for the very last time. It was a sad day for anyone who has ever lived in the area. The Odakyu train line has now gone deep underground, and with it has brought a huge, brand new station that is both sterile and soulless in equal measures. It is not what Shimokitazawa is about, but I guess this is what you call ‘progress’ in the modern age. I […]
Categories: Daily Life in Tokyo • Tags: alleyways, art, culture, graffiti, japan, keio, odakyu, otaku, shimokitazawa, street, tokyo, train, urban
Japan’s youth culture isn’t a stereotype
by joostay
It’s time to move on. The real fashion in Japan doesn’t come from the tired, played-out subcultures but from the kids on the street. Gyarus, Lolitas, Cosplay…yadda yadda yadda. Like a lot of other subjects, fashion articles on Japan can often be…
Categories: Art Music & Culture • Tags: fashion, goth, harajuku, japan, lolita, shimokitazawa, tokyo
